A quiet notice V2Melody closes at midnight on , Spanish time.

Closes

A note from Richard

V2Melody will close at midnight on 20 January 2028

This site has been a retirement project in musical poetry: poems chosen with care and set to music, offered freely for as long as it felt right to keep the garden open.

The work no longer holds the place it once did in my life. I have gone as far with it as I wish to go. Like a sand mandala, it was made to be completed and then released. I am not attached to its permanence, and I do not believe any of it needs to last beyond the time it was given. The poems were already here before I arrived and began to experiment with them. They will still be here when these musical experiments, and indeed myself, have been swept away, like the sand of a mandala. Nothing has been lost.

I want a simpler end to my life, days of simple love and enjoyment with my wonderful wife of 20 years. The work of maintaining a server, the monitoring, and the residual obligations that come with keeping a site alive no longer fit that life.

From 4 November 2026 I will not be adding new poems or musical poems to the site.

The experimental music I am making now is on my Suno profile. Those pieces stay there, and are not added to this site.

Until midnight on 20 January 2028, Spanish time, everything remains available exactly as it is. That is when my VPS server contract comes to an end, and it will not be renewed. After that, the server will be switched off and the site will disappear.

The Mandala Is Finished explains this more fully.

Thank you to anyone who found a poem, a track, or a quiet moment here.

The pleasure was in the making.

Richard

Home › Glossary › Letter H

Ham

Biblical
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Noah’s son whose disrespectful act toward his father led to the cursing of his son Canaan, symbolizing familial shame and generational consequence.

Detailed Definition
Ham saw Noah’s nakedness; his son Canaan was cursed, shaping later ethnic narratives. His story raises complex ethical questions. In poetry, Ham symbolizes transgression, the weight of ancestral shame, and the ambiguous legacy of familial dishonor in foundational myths.
Example
Example in poetry:
In John Milton’s "Paradise Lost," Ham’s exposure of Noah (Genesis 9) illustrates the cost of disrespect; In William Blake’s "The Four Zoas," Ham represents sensual rebellion; In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s "The Drama of Exile," Ham symbolizes the son who fails in filial duty; In George Herbert’s "The Church-porch," Ham’s curse warns against mocking vulnerability; In John Keble’s "Lyra Innocentium," Ham embodies the spirit of irreverence; In Christina Rossetti’s "The World," Ham’s gaze contrasts with Shem and Japheth’s covering.
Additional Notes
Ham: Son of Noah; his “seeing” Noah’s nakedness leads to Canaan’s curse (Genesis 9:20–27)—a text historically misused to justify racism. In poetry, Ham requires careful handling: focus on themes of shame, familial boundaries, and the dangers of textual misappropriation. His descendants (Egypt, Canaan) link to Israel’s later enemies—ideal for critical poems on legacy, interpretation, or the ethics of reading contested narratives.
Also Known As
Ham son of Noah Ham father of Canaan
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